[All ammunition has been confiscated.]
Marine: What are we supposed to use? Harsh language?.
[The alien queen advances on Newt.]
Ripley: Get away from her you bitch!
Hudson: Hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?
Vasquez: No, have you?
Hudson: Game over man... Game over!
Ripley: Newt, look at me. Where are they?
Newt: They're dead! All right? Can I go now?
Ripley: You know Burke? I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage.
Newt: We'd better get back, 'cause it'll be dark soon, and they mostly come at night... Mostly.
Ripley: You're crazy, Burke. Do you know that? Do you really think that you can get a dangerous organism like that pass ICC quarantine?
Burke: How can they impound it if they don't know about it?
Ripley: Oh, but they will know about it, Burke. From me. Just like they'll know that you were responsible for the deaths of one hundred fifty-seven colonists here!
Bishop: Not bad for a human.
Apone: All right, sweethearts. You heard the man and you know the drill. Assholes and elbows! Hudson, come here! Come here.
Van Luen: Thank you, that will be all.
Ripley: Goddammit, that's not all! You see, if one of those things gets down, then that will be all! Then, all this, this bullshit you think is so important, you can just kiss all that goodbye!
Hudson: How do I get out of this chicken shit outfit?
Apone: You secure that shit, Hudson!
Hudson: Maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!
Hudson: Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen.
Ripley: How many drops is this for you Lieutenant?
Gorman: Thirty eight... Simulated.
Vasquez: How many combat drops?
Gorman: Uh, two. Including this one.
Bishop: Believe me, I'd prefer not to. I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid.
Answer: It really was all down to James Cameron having already written the script and proving himself capable of directing with 'The Terminator.' It was just a quicker, easier, and almost certainly cheaper decision to let him direct his own script rather than get someone else, even Ridley Scott. While the producers had wanted to make an 'Alien' sequel almost immediately, at the time the head of 20th Century Fox didn't want to pursue it fearing it would be seen as an obvious cash-in and flop. When a new executive at the studio came in a couple years later, the project was put back on track, and I believe Cameron was the first to be approached to write the script.
TonyPH